Portobello Book Blog

I am absolutely delighted to be joined by one of my favourite Orenda authors Louise Beech today. I have read and reviewed several of Louise’s wonderful books and you can read my reviews by clicking on the following links if you would like to: The Mountain in my Shoe, The Lion Tamer Who Lost, Call Me Star Girl As I’ve already reviewed her latest novel, Call Me Star Girl, for my stop on the blog tour Louise is going to share #TenThings she’d like you to know about her. Sit back and enjoy!

TEN THINGS ABOUT ME

I’m tall – 5ft9. The only tall female in my family. So I rarely wear heels. Actually, I’m among the tallest of the males too. Only my brother and son are taller than me, both well over 6ft.

I work in a theatre as an usher. I LOVE it, mostly because I get to see all the shows, though after a month-long run you do get sick of the same one. My favourite part of the place is backstage – the dressing rooms, the costumes, that little area where actors wait to go on stage. My current work-in-progress is set in a theatre. A ghostly, psychological thriller where there may be more than one murder this time…

I wrote my first full novel when I was 14. It was very teen angsty, about a girl whose parents get divorced. Wish I could read it now, but it was handwritten in a large notebook and is long-gone.

I’m very OCD. My sister torments me by moving items just an inch to see if I notice. I ALWAYS do.

I didn’t fly anywhere until I was 32. It’s not because I’m scared, I love it, but we couldn’t afford to travel much when I was a kid, and then I got pregnant very young so couldn’t afford to myself either for a while. My first flight was to New York on a delayed honeymoon (four years late, again due to no money!) I’ve definitely made up for it since.

I was conceived on Valentine’s Day.

I didn’t do very well at school (aside from in English) and never went to university (I got pregnant during my A levels) but I hope that lets any young writers reading this know that although an education helps, if you’re not very good at exams and don’t do so well, this has nothing to do with whether you can write or not. If you can write, you can write. No exam will tell you that. I learned my craft simply by doing it. Over and over and over. If you love writing the way I always have, don’t let anything or anyone stop you.

If anyone ever tells me their birthday, I never forget it. I can remember the birthdays of people I knew in school.

I almost drowned when I was three. We were in Wales on holiday and I was playing near a small river with an eight-year-old friend. My parents were quite a way from us in a field. I fell into the water. I remember sinking to the bottom and opening my eyes and seeing darkness and bits of stuff floating about. Somehow (I couldn’t swim then) I must have floated to the top. I have no memory of how I got out, but the next thing I was scrambling up the bank and my friend was staring at me in shock. Perhaps something a little spiritual happened that day? Water has played a big part of my life, and seeps into a lot of my novels.

I don’t have a single tattoo. But never say never. I might get one on my next big birthday.

My thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in the blogtour. Call Me Star Girl is available now in ebook and will be available in paperback on 18th April. You will find various buying options on the publishers’ website here: Call Me Star Girl

From the back of the book

Stirring up secrets can be deadly … especially if they’re yours…
Pregnant Victoria Valbon was brutally murdered in an alley three weeks ago – and her killer hasn’t been caught.
Tonight is Stella McKeever’s final radio show. The theme is secrets. You tell her yours, and she’ll share some of hers.

Stella might tell you about Tom, a boyfriend who likes to play games, about the mother who abandoned her, now back after fourteen years. She might tell you about the perfume bottle with the star-shaped stopper, or about her father …

What Stella really wants to know is more about the mysterious man calling the station … who says he knows who killed Victoria, and has proof.
Tonight is the night for secrets, and Stella wants to know everything…

With echoes of the Play Misty for Me, Call Me Star Girl is a taut, emotive and all-consuming psychological thriller that plays on our deepest fears, providing a stark reminder that stirring up dark secrets from the past can be deadly…

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